2016 American Historical Association Book Awards

The Global Transformation of Time: 1870–1950 by Vanessa Ogle

The American Historical Association is the largest and most comprehensive history society in the United States. Basically, every flavor of history is represented in the AHA. Unsurprisingly, the AHA awards a massive number of prizes to historians. In 2016, the American Historical Association (AHA) awarded 24 book prizes.

While the list is long, it is a great place to find great new history books on a lot of different topics. The breadth of subject of the books on the AHA prizes is remarkable.

The Herbert Baxter Adams Prize

Awarded to an author for a book on European history from ancient times to 1815.

Vittoria Di Palma, Wasteland: A History (Yale Univ. Press, 2014)

The George Louis Beer Prize

Awarded to an author for the best new book on covering European international history since 1895.

Vanessa Ogle, The Global Transformation of Time: 1870–1950 (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

The Jerry Bentley Prize

Awarded for the best new book in World History.

Michael Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis: Interwar Paris and the Seeds of Third World Nationalism (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015)

The Albert J. Beveridge Award

Given to an author who has written the best new history of the United States, Latin America, or Canada, from 1492 to the present. Ann Twinam, Purchasing Whiteness: Pardos, Mulattos, and the Quest for Social Mobility in the Spanish Indies (Stanford Univ. Press, 2015)

The Paul Birdsall Prize

Awarded to the author of the best new book covering European military and strategic history since 1870. Bruno Cabanes, The Great War and the Origins of Humanitarianism, 1918–1924 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015)

The James Henry Breasted Prize

The Breasted Prize is awarded to best new book covering any field of history prior to CE 1000. Hina Azam, Sexual Violation in Islamic Law: Substance, Evidence, and Procedure (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015)

The Albert B. Corey Prize

This award is given to the best new history book examining Canadian-American relations or the history of both countries.

The People's Network by Robert MacDougall

Robert MacDougall, The People’s Network: The Political Economy of the Telephone in the Gilded Age (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2014)

The John K. Fairbank Prize for East Asian history since 1800

Barak Kushner, Men to Devils, Devils to Men: Japanese War Crimes and Chinese Justice (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

The Morris D. Forkosch Prize in the field of British, British imperial, or British Commonwealth history since 1485

R. F. Foster, Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890–1923 (W.W. Norton & Company, 2015)

The Leo Gershoy Award in the fields of 17th- and 18th-century western European history

Alexandra Shepard, Accounting for Oneself: Worth, Status, and the Social Order in Early Modern England (Oxford Univ. Press, 2015)

The Clarence H. Haring Prize for a Latin American who has published the most outstanding book in Latin American history during the preceding five years

Antonio García de León, Tierra Adentro, Mar en Fuera: El Puerto de Veracruz y su Litoral a Sotavento, 1519–1821 (Fondo de Cultura Economica USA, 2011)

The Friedrich Katz Prize in Latin American and Caribbean history

Edward Beatty, Technology and the Search for Progress in Modern Mexico (Univ. of California Press, 2015)

The Joan Kelly Memorial Prize for women’s history and/or feminist theory

Keely Stauter-Halsted, The Devil’s Chain: Prostitution and Social Control in Partitioned Poland (Cornell Univ. Press, 2015)

The Martin A. Klein Prize in African history

Nancy Rose Hunt, A Nervous State: Violence, Remedies, and Reverie in Colonial Congo (Duke Univ. Press, 2015)

The Waldo G. Leland Prize offered every five years for the most outstanding reference tool in the field of history

Father Peter J. Powell, editor, In Sun’s Likeness and Power: Cheyenne Accounts of Shield and Tipi Heraldry, 2 vols., by James Mooney (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2013)

The Littleton-Griswold Prize in US law and society, broadly defined

Border Law: The First Seminole War and American Nationhood by Deborah A. Rosen

Deborah A. Rosen, Border Law: The First Seminole War and American Nationhood (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

The J. Russell Major Prize for French history

Ethan B. Katz, The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

The Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize in Italian history or Italian-American relations

Stefano Dall’Aglio and the late Donald Weinstein, translator, The Duke’s Assassin: Exile and Death of Lorenzino de’ Medici (Yale Univ. Press, 2015)

The George L. Mosse Prize in the intellectual and cultural history of Europe since 1500

Thomas W. Laqueur, The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains (Princeton Univ. Press, 2015)

The James A. Rawley Prize for the integration of Atlantic worlds before the 20th century

Frontiers of Possession: Spain and Portugal in Europe and the Americas by Tamar Herzog

Tamar Herzog, Frontiers of Possession: Spain and Portugal in Europe and the Americas (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

The Premio del Rey in the field of early Spanish history

Núria Silleras-Fernández, Chariots of Ladies: Francesc Eiximenis and the Court Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Iberia (Cornell Univ. Press, 2015)

The John F. Richards Prize for South Asian history

Nayanjot Lahiri, Ashoka in Ancient India (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

The Dorothy Rosenberg Prize in the history of the Jewish diaspora

Paul Lerner, The Consuming Temple: Jews, Department Stores, and the Consumer Revolution in Germany, 1880–1940 (Cornell Univ. Press, 2015)

The Wesley-Logan Prize in African diaspora history

Carina E. Ray, Crossing the Color Line: Race, Sex, and the Contested Politics of Colonialism in Ghana (Ohio Univ. Press, 2015)

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